May 22, 2011

The History Subject Centre will officially close on 31st October, although effectively most activities will cease by the end of July. Sarah Richardson has written a briefing report, After the History Subject Centre, which outlines the support that will be available for HE History once the subject centre has closed. There are also details of activities and services the History community have found most valuable and recommendations on how these may be continued in the future.

January 17, 2011

The HEA in Wales is currently leading work to coordinate activity in the Welsh sector to enhance specific areas of learning and teaching in HE at the request of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW). This joint approach will lead to greater benefits for students as a result of both universities and sector organisations working together to enhance students' learning experiences.

A new enhancement theme - Graduates for our future - has been identified for higher education institutions and sector orgnisations in Wales to focus their learning and teaching activities. Three work-strands will sit under this theme:

It is clear that higher education is facing a challenging future, with reduced public funding, an increased focus on enhancing the student learning experience and an even greater emphasis on organisational effectiveness. Change Academy is your opportunity to approach these challenges in an imaginative and creative way. Organised in partnership between the Higher Education Academy and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, Change Academy is a year-long process that includes specific development opportunities for nominated team leaders, an ongoing support network and a four-day residential. It provides a creative environment in which the whole team can focus on planning and developing strategies for lasting change.

The deadline for proposals for the 2011 Change Academy is Thursday 3 March 2011. To find out more, please contact the Change Academy team (01904 717500 or change@heacademy.ac.uk) or visit our website, which includes video commentaries from 2010 participants. If you would like to discuss potential change project ideas with one of the programme directors, please contact Steve Outram (07976 132804) or Lesly Huxley (07977 457949).

September 15, 2010

The History Subject Centre is funding a project on the Assessment of Workplace Learning in UK Undergraduate History Programmes, at a time when opportunities for workplace learning (WPL) are increasingly being offered in History courses. Although there is a vast literature on work place and work based learning, there is comparatively little written on the assessment of this form of learning.

This project aims to address this omission and offer examples of best practice to support the central importance of assessment to teaching and learning.

Colleagues in History are invited to complete the online survey about their experiences of the assessment of WPL: the findings will form an important part of the project outputs and conclusions. The survey is open from 15th September to 5th November 2010.

August 24, 2010

The GCSE results are published today. The results in History continue to improve with 31.5% of students achieving an A or A* grade (the 2009 figure is 30.4%). Girls outperform boys by some margin (35.7 of girls receive an A/A* grade compared to 27.4% of boys)

History remains one of the most popular subjects at GCSE behind English, Maths and Science (which are compulsory) and Design and Technology.

August 19, 2010

History continues to be a popular subject at A level with numbers taking the subject up very slightly on the 2009 figures to 49,222 (from 49,071). 7.0% of students achieved the new A* grade which is under the norm for those obtaining the grade in all subjects (8.1%) Over a quarter of students achieved either A* or A.

History was the fifth most popular subject taken at A level behind English, Maths, Biology and Psychology.

Numbers taking AS level History increased by 2 per cent to 59,257. There was a slight drop in the number of A grades awarded but a fifth of all students taking AS level History achieve an A.

August 18, 2010

The National Student Satisfaction survey data for 2010 has been released by HEFCE today. The History Subject Centre has produced a detailed report on the 2009 data.

Our preliminary analysis of the 2010 information demonstrates that satisfaction with HE History teaching continues at a high level with an improvement from 81% to 89% for the question: 'Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of the course'. The weakest area for History remains assessment and feedback but here there have been some marginal improvements in the scores for the sector.

July 27, 2010

A discussion paper and consultation on the UK external examining system has been launched by Universities UK and GuildHE, in collaboration with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA).

The review is being conducted in response to a recommendation from HEFCE arising from the HEFCE Teaching Quality and Student Experience (TQSE) sub-committee report on HEFCE's statutory responsiblity for quality assurance (HEFCE 2009/40) and as part of a wider commitment to ensure that quality arrangements are continually reviewed and developed.

June 03, 2010

A new report published by HEPI argues that a real degree of comparability across all institutions and subjects is not practicable or even desirable. The report instead calls for standards and quality to be maintained by the creation of a system of subject-based networks.

May 15, 2010

History UK are undertaking a survey of the external examiner system in HE History. The whole external examining system is under scrutiny at the moment. The survey offers a chance for Departments and individual externals to comment on how effective the process is for validating standards in our discipline.

Please fill in the questionnaire if you are (or have recently been) an external examiner. All responses will be anonymised.